TYPE  Original

Research
PUBLISHED  02February 2023
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466

Fear of clowns: An investigation

OPEN ACCESS into the aetiology of coulrophobia
EDITED BY
Peter Parry,
The University of Queensland, Australia
Philip John Tyson *, Shakiela K. Davies , Sophie Scorey  and
REVIEWED BY
William James Greville 
Francisco Esteves,
School of Psychology and Therapeutic Studies, University of South Wales, Treforest, United Kingdom
Mid Sweden University,
Sweden
Francis McAndrew,
Knox College, Introduction: Fear of clowns or coulrophobia is a little understood phenomenon despite
United States studies indicating that it has a high prevalence in the general population. There have
*CORRESPONDENCE been no previous investigations into the aetiology of this fear, although several plausible
Philip John Tyson hypotheses from the wider literature can be generated; the fear stems from media
philip.tyson@southwales.ac.uk
portrayals of scary clowns, from the unusual physical appearance or the unpredictable
SPECIALTY SECTION behaviour displayed, or it derives from an unpleasant personal experience.
This article was submitted to
Psychopathology, Methods: The current study reviews the literature in this area and also pilots a new
a section of the journal questionnaire (Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire; OFCQ) to explore the causes
Frontiers in Psychology
of the fear of clowns in a sample of 528 participants who reported such a fear.
RECEIVED 27November 2022
ACCEPTED 16 January 2023 Results: Our findings suggest that uncertainty of harmful intent, media influences and
PUBLISHED 02 February 2023 unpredictability of behaviour play an important role in the origins of coulrophobia.
CITATION There are also multiple features of clown appearance which produce a negative
Tyson PJ, Davies SK, Scorey S and experiential state and a sense of a direct threat.
Greville WJ (2023) Fear of clowns: An
investigation into the aetiology of Discussion: We conclude that the origins of clown fear are multi-factorial and primarily
coulrophobia. relate to aspects of their facial appearance, their behaviour, and how they have been
Front. Psychol. 14:1109466.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466
portrayed in the media. Surprisingly, fear derived from personal experience was not
one of our main findings. Further research is focused on looking at associations
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Tyson, Davies, Scorey and Greville. This
between the level of fear and each aetiological category.
is an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution KEYWORDS
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted, clown fear, coulrophobia, phobia acquisition, phobia, aetiology
provided the original author(s) and the
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice. 1. Introduction
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms. ‘Want your boat, Georgie?’ The clown smiled. […] ‘And a balloon? I’ve got red and green and
yellow and blue…’
‘Do they float?’
‘Float?’ The clown’s grin widened. ‘Oh yes, indeed they do. They float! And there’s cotton.
candy …’
George reached.
The clown seized his arm.
And George saw the clown’s face change.
What he saw then was terrible enough to make his worst imaginings of the thing in the.
Cellar look like sweet dreams; what he saw destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke.
[…] ‘They float,’ it growled, ‘they float, Georgie, and when you are down here with me, you’ll.
float, too—’
IT (King, 2016)

In contemporary Western societies, clowns are typically depicted as friendly figures of fun
and comedy, perhaps best embodied in those you would find in a circus or at a children’s party.
Yet, the seemingly pleasant circus clown can just as easily upset as entertain, for example if
coaxing a shy and embarrassed child to be part of a magic trick, or with a surprise jet of water
from a lapel flower. More generally, the erratic behaviour displayed by clowns in their slapstick
comedy combined with their outlandish appearance can put an audience on edge; perhaps

Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org

Tyson et al.
intentionally. Indeed, throughout history, clowns have held a more
ambiguous and multifarious role than simple entertainer. Durwin
(2004) and Bala (2010) posit that clowns (and similar incarnations
such as the fool, jester or joker) embody the “trickster” archetype, a
force that seeks to balance good and evil and that can thus be either
benevolent or malign seemingly at whim (a classic example being the
god Loki in Norse mythology). Uncertainty thus exists as to the
potential of a clown to harm as well as charm.
According to Stott (2012), the development of the clown into an
overtly malevolent figure began towards the end of the 19th century,
perhaps most prominently in the 1892 opera Pagliacci, in which the
central character Canio murders his wife and her lover whilst
dressed as a clown. From these earlier depictions emerge the
modern trope of ‘killer clowns,’ as exemplified in the above quote
featuring the clown Pennywise from the Stephen King novel It
(1986) and subsequent film and TV adaptations. Such sinister
clowns now abound in popular culture (prominent examples include
the possessed clown doll in the 1982 movie Poltergeist; and Batman’s
nemesis, the Joker) and indeed have had real-life counterparts (the
serial killer John Wayne Gacy).
Are these murderous manifestations of clowns in popular culture
largely responsible for generating fear of clowns in the general population?
Or are they merely the embodiment of an extant fear? This paper sought
to investigate the putative origins of coulrophobia – the fear of clowns.
1.1. The prevalence of clown fear
Coulrophobia is not a well-understood phenomenon and is not
explicitly identified as a specific phobia in the DSM-V (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013), despite studies indicating that it is
present amongst both adults and children, and is represented across
many different cultures (Loidl-Keil et al., 2004; Glasper et al., 2007;
Seim and Spates, 2010; Barkmann et al., 2013; Meiri et al., 2017; van
Venrooij and Barnhoorn, 2017; Rapoport and Berta, 2019; Amirazizi,
2021; Tyson et al., 2022). Although the prevalence of coulrophobia is
inconsistent across studies, the largest and most recent survey to date,
including 987 adult participants from 64 different countries, reported
that 53.5% (528) of their sample had some degree of fear of clowns
(Tyson et al., 2022). Other prevalence studies with adult populations
have reported lower levels of clown fear: 17% (Rapoport and Berta,
2019); 5.6% (Amirazizi, 2021); 1.5% (Seim and Spates, 2010).
Research involving children and young people has exclusively
focussed on a fear of medical clowns, who are employed to entertain
young hospitalised patients. Here, between 1 and 6% of those surveyed
have expressed apprehension to such characters (Glasper et al., 2007;
Barkmann et al., 2013; Meiri et al., 2017). Other studies with similar
participants, whilst not reporting frequency data, also acknowledge a
dislike of clowns in their samples (Loidl-Keil et al., 2004; Curtis et al.,
2007). Interestingly, two of the studies which reported a fear of medical
clowns in hospitalised children, also found that such a fear was present
amongst the parents of the young patients and the medical staff, with
prevalence rates of between 18 and 46% (Glasper et  al., 2007; van
Venrooij and Barnhoorn, 2017).
These considerable fluctuations in prevalence rates reported across
different studies are in part attributable to the severity of fear being
documented in each case (see Tyson et al., 2022 for further discussion).
Regardless of the exact figures, there is clear evidence that coulrophobia
affects a significant portion of the populace, and one key unanswered
question relates to the origins and causes of this fear.
Frontiers in Psychology
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466
1.2. Aetiological theories of clown fear
Theories of the aetiology of clown fear can be broadly split into three
general categories: those relating to their physical appearance, those relating
to their behaviour and those derived from learning and/or experience.
Firstly, considering fear of clowns as deriving from aspects of
physical appearance, Moore (2012) suggests that coulrophobia may stem
from the uncanny valley effect which describes the feelings of eeriness
and repulsion triggered by near human-looking objects. This theory was
originally postulated by Mori (1970) and Mori et  al. (2012), who
speculated about the uneasy feelings which might be  elicited when
someone touches a cold and limp prosthetic hand. It looks real, but does
not possess all the qualities expected for a real human hand, such as
warmth and visible bone structure. In contrast, a simple mechanical
hand or a genuine human hand do not engender such negative feelings.
Therefore, the quality of being ‘near-human’ is the key element which
causes uneasiness, and Mori and colleagues also suggested that this
effect may be instinctual, protecting us from sources of danger such as
corpses or unfamiliar animal species. Furthermore, this effect is
amplified if the item has movement. Following on from Mori, the
uncanny valley effect has been offered as an explanation for feelings of
unease at other human-like artefacts such as dolls, masks, puppets,
virtual reality avatars and computer-generated characters in movies
(Seyama and Nagayama, 2007). Moore (2012) suggests a cognitive
explanation for this phenomena; the emotional discomfort stems from
the item causing ‘sensory conflict’ (p. 3) because it does not fit neatly into
either of two item categories, e.g., the prosthetic hand is neither fully
mechanical, nor fully human. With regard to clowns, the distortion of
their facial features through makeup gives them a ‘near-human’ quality
which may elicit the uncanny valley effect; however, no research has
been conducted to explore this proposition. Relatedly, one suggestion in
the popular psychology literature is that the fear of clowns stems from a
difficulty in face processing and our subsequent inability to perceive the
true emotions of the figure because of their makeup. This creates
uncertainty as to the character’s intentions; the clown’s painted smile
may be concealing anger and aggression and therefore be a potential
threat to our safety (Flora, 2006; Christian, 2011).
Interestingly, the two key criteria suggested above—being a distorted
version of a human figure or having concealed facial emotions—link to
ideas that clowns are perceived as ‘creepy.’ Subjective creepiness has been
defined as a feeling of anxiety triggered by uncertainty as to ‘whether there
is something to fear or not and/or by the ambiguity of the precise nature of
the threat (e.g., sexual, physical violence, contamination)’ (McAndrew and
Koehnke, 2016, p.  10). Indeed, in an exploration of the nature of
creepiness using a survey of 1,341 participants, McAndrew and Koehnke
(2016) reported that being a clown was rated as the creepiest occupation
from a list of 21 possibilities, and this study indicated that a peculiar
smile, bulging eyes, very pale skin and an odd dress sense were key
features of creepiness. Facial characteristics, particularly eyes, eyebrows,
teeth and lips were also associated with creepiness in a study by Watt et al.
(2017), and the authors note how these areas are crucial for emotional
transmission. Clown makeup which accentuates these features may
therefore elicit a negative emotional response. In the personification of
the “killer clown” as mentioned earlier, these facial characteristics are
exaggerated further still, with these malevolent clowns bestowed with
lines of sharp teeth and feral eyes. Such features may go beyond being
merely unsettling or creepy and instead elicit a direct sense of threat.
The final appearance-related aspect of clown fear relates to disgust.
This emotion has been defined as a ‘revulsion response towards
potential contamination’ (Cisler et  al., 2009, p.  36), from items or
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environments which are perceived to hold an infectious threat. A
number of studies have identified revulsion as a feature of spider and
blood injection injury phobias (Sawchuk et al., 2000; Cisler et al., 2009;
Bianchi and Carter, 2012) and one study reported similar findings with
specific phobias for wasps, bees and woodlice (Münstedt and
Mühlhans, 2013). Importantly, it appears that disgust is a separate
concept from fear, with the two emotions being distinguished
physiologically, neurologically, cognitively and facially (Cisler et al.,
2009). Disgust is also experienced more generally in response to items
or situations that remind an individual of death (Bianchi and Carter,
2012); for example, people have a reluctance to sleep in a room in
which someone had recently died, or to touch a dead body (Olatunji
et al., 2007). In relation to fear of clowns, it is plausible that elements
of clown makeup, with an emphasis on white face paint with bright red
lips and nose, might be perceived as a contagious threat. Here, the
white may act as a reminder of the pallor of the face of an unwell or
deceased person (Stewart-Shaw, 2019), and the red; a reminder of the
erythema that often co-occurs with infection.
Secondly, behavioural explanations of clown fear focus on the
unpredictability of their behaviour, and like some of the explanations
relating to physical characteristics, also relate to the concept of creepiness.
McAndrew and Koehnke (2016) surveyed the mannerisms associated with
creepiness, and here, unpredictability of behaviour was rated highly with
participants responding affirmatively to the statement; ‘I am uncomfortable
because I  cannot predict how he  or she will behave’ (McAndrew and
Koehnke, 2016, p.  13). The wider literature on specific phobias also
suggests that perceived unpredictability may be a key feature in eliciting
alarm, and this has been demonstrated in studies with spider fearful
individuals (Armfield and Mattiske, 1996; Vrijsen et al., 2009; Klahn et al.,
2016). Furthermore, studies with children have reported fearful responses
to toys which make unpredictable noises, such as laughing at random
intervals (Gunnar et al., 1984; Yip et al., 2019). Clown behaviour might
reasonably be  considered unpredictable due to the nature of their
performance where there is an emphasis on sleights of hand and magic
tricks. Indeed, Durwin (2004) suggests that the fear of clowns is a cross-
cultural phenomenon stemming from our unease at those who subvert
social norms and break behavioural taboos. And again, when this erratic
behaviour goes to extremes, it can be more than merely uncomfortable or
unsettling and instead be perceived as directly threatening.
Thirdly, explanations for clown fear can be  extrapolated from
research into the development of other specific phobias, and relates to
this phenomena stemming from learning and/or experience. Specifically,
Rachman’s (1977) three pathways theory of fear acquisition suggest that
the development of a specific phobia may be  caused by; (1) direct
experience, (2) observation (modelling) or (3) instruction/information.
Here, the fear may be the result of an early frightening experience, may
be ‘handed down’ from one generation to the next or might stem from
negative media portrayals of clowns in popular culture (as described in
the opening paragraphs). Rachman’s (1977) tripartite theory has some
empirical support in the general specific phobia literature (King et al.,
1998; Muris et al., 2008; Coelho and Purkis, 2009; Loxton et al., 2018).
In summary, within three broad categories, the preceding discussion
has outlined eight plausible explanations for the origins of clown fear;
a. Physical appearance
(1) Their ‘proto’ human image makes us uneasy (the uncanny
valley effect).
(2) Their exaggerated facial features convey a direct sense of threat.
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(3) Their makeup hides emotional signals so we cannot determine any
harmful intent.
(4) Their makeup reminds us of death, infection or blood injury and
thus evokes a disgust or avoidance response.
b. Behaviour
(5) Their unpredictable behaviour makes us feel uncomfortable.
c. Learning and/or experience
(6) The fear is modelled the fear from family members.
(7) The fear stems from negative portrayals of clowns in the media.
(8) The fear originated from a frightening experience with a clown.
It is of course likely that a combination of the factors listed above
may contribute to the fear of clowns. Indeed, several of the causative
explanations may relate to an innate neurobiological fear response as
is seen in other specific phobias (Garcia, 2017). Furthermore, there
may be  individual differences in the origins of such a fear. The
methodology employed in this study will assist us in determining the
relative contribution of each of the explanations, and enable us to look
at associations between all the plausible causes. An original
questionnaire was designed for this purpose, and this is the first study
to focus specifically on the origins of coulrophobia.
1.3. The current study
This project had three key aims;
1. To assess the psychometric properties of a newly developed
measure; the Origins of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire (OFCQ).
2. To explore the origins of clown fear in a sample of individuals
who reported such a fear.
3. To explore the relationship between the demographic factors of
gender and age on the self-reported origins of clown fear.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
A snowball technique was used to recruit participants, with the
survey being widely distributed both within the host institution, the
University of South Wales, United Kingdom, and externally via social
media. There was considerable emphasis on participants sharing the
survey with international contacts in order for data to be captured from
a wide population sample. After removing inadmissible responses, our
survey sample consisted of 987 participants, of whom 790 (80%) were
females and 197 (20%) were males. From this total population, it was
primarily the participants who asserted that they had some degree of
fear of clowns who were of interest in the current study, and this sample
numbered 528; 53.5% of the total sample. Of this subgroup, 450 (85%)
were female and 78 (15%) were male. The sample of participants
affirming a fear of clowns included nationals of 52 different countries,
although the majority were born in the United Kingdom. The age range
for the utilised sample was between 18 and 72 (M = 28.20; SD = 9.95).
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2.2. Materials
The survey consisted of an initial set of questions relating to key
demographic information (i.e. gender, age). Participants were then asked
if they were afraid of clowns with a dichotomous ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ response
required. Additionally, the question ‘How Afraid are you of clowns’ was
posed with options for responses being ‘Not at all,’ ‘Somewhat/Slightly,’
‘Moderately’ or ‘Extremely.’ The data for the current study was drawn
from the participants who answered that they were either ‘Somewhat/
Slightly,’ ‘Moderately’ or ‘Extremely’ afraid of clowns (528 participants;
53.5%). Following this, an original questionnaire was presented for
completion: the Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire (OFCQ; see
below). The questionnaire package was created and distributed using an
online survey software platform.1
2.2.1. Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire
The Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire (OFCQ) was designed
to investigate the potential causative factors behind clown fear in
participants who expressed such a fear. The research team collaborated
to create the items to be included in the scale, based on the aetiological
themes identified in the literature review above. The measurement tool
was a 7-point Likert scale (1-Totally Disagree to 7-Totally Agree)
incorporating 28 statements covering the 8 causative themes. In
addition, 4 items were included which covered general physiological
reactivity to clown stimuli giving a total of 32 items.
Examples of questionnaire items include;
“I think clowns look disturbing” (Physical Appearance:
Uncanny Valley).
“I cannot read a clown’s facial expression” (Physical Appearance:
Hidden Emotional Signals).
“I worry a clown will do something unexpected” (Behaviour:
Unpredictability).
“I have a significant family member or close friend who is afraid of
clowns” (Learning/Experience: Modelled from Family or Friend).
“I have seen scary scenes in films involving clowns” (Learning/
Experience: Media Portrayals).
“I feel my heart racing when I  see a clown” (General
Physiological Reactivity).
This scale demonstrated high levels of reliability with an initial
Cronbach’s alpha figure of 0.950. One item was deemed necessary to
remove “I was not afraid of clowns when I was younger” due to an item-
total correlation of −0.128 (the other item-total scores were all positive
and ranged from 0.156 to 0.854). The Cronbach’s alpha figure increased
to 0.955 with this item removed. The split-half reliability co-efficient for
the amended 31-item OFCQ was 0.948.
2.3. Procedure
This study complied with the British Psychological Society Code of
Human Research Ethics (British Psychological Society, 2014), and was
granted ethical approval from the University of South Wales Faculty of
Life Sciences and Education Ethics Committee. The project was
advertised on several social media platforms, and via internal
University messaging forums. After providing online consent,
participants completed the demographic questions, fear and level of
1  https://www.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/
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10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466
fear of questions and the Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire
(OFCQ). The survey was active between 16 September and 31
December 2019 and following cessation, data were exported to IBM
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 26) for analysis.
2.4. Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics consisting of frequencies and mean scores were
used to present the demographic characteristics as a group and the
gender split across each origin theme. Inferential analysis involved; (a)
a Pearson’s r correlation involving age and origin themes, (b) a one-way
Analysis of Variance with Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons to explore
group differences between each origin theme, and (c) a Multivariate
Analysis of Variance was used to explore the effect of gender across each
origin theme. Finally, a factor analysis of the Origin of Fear of Clowns
Questionnaire (OFCQ) was used to explore associations between the
Likert items within and the factor structure of this measure.
3. Results
3.1. Comparison of origin categories
Considering the mean Likert scale scores for each of the eight
causative themes, the ones which attracted the highest level of assent
were; Hidden Emotional Signals (M  = 5.20, SD  = 1.44) and Negative
Media Portrayals (M = 5.03, SD = 1.45), whilst items relating to Modelling
(M = 2.78, SD = 1.62) and Frightening Experience (M = 2.65, SD = 2.03)
attracted the lowest levels of agreement. Mean ratings and ranks for each
causative theme are shown in Table 1.
Differences between these theme categories were statistically
significant for the whole group according to a one-way ANOVA
[F(7,4,216) = 214.847, p < 0.001], and Bonferroni Post-Hoc comparisons
revealed that each mean score was statistically distinct from all others
(p  < 0.01  in all cases), except for Uncanny Valley Effect vs. Negative
Media Portrayals (p = 0.359), and Unpredictable Behaviour (p = 1.00),
Negative Media Portrayals vs. Hidden Emotional Signals (p = 1.00), and
Unpredictable Behaviour (p = 1.00), Modelling vs. Frightening Experience
(p = 1.00) and Hidden Emotional Signals vs. Unpredictable Behaviour
(p = 0.551). SPSS-adjusted p-values were reported here.
3.2. Demographic characteristics and origins
of fear of clowns
As shown in Table 1, mean scores for all Physical Appearance and
Behaviour items were marginally higher for females compared to males,
whilst only one of the Learning and/or Experience items followed this
pattern (Negative Media Portrayals). The other two items within this
category (Modelling, Frightening Experience) showed the opposite
pattern with males scoring higher than females. However, a Multivariate
Analysis of Variance revealed no statistically significant effect of gender
on origin themes F(8,519) = 1.93 p = 0.054; Wilks’ Lambda = 0.971,
ηp2 = 0.03. There was likewise no significant difference in self-reported
Physiological Reactivity between male and female participants, 3.39 vs.
3.66: t(525) = 1.09, p = 0.277.
Pearson’s r correlations were used to examine the association
between age and the eight-origin theme mean scores on the
OFCQ. When correcting for multiple tests by multiplying each reported
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TABLE 1  Mean ratings and ranking for causative themes with gender split.

Origin category Causative theme Mean score whole Rank order Mean gender split
group (SD) (whole group) (Male vs. Female)
Physical appearance The Uncanny Valley Effect 4.78 (1.55) 4 4.49 vs. 4.83

Direct Sense of Threat 3.99 (1.75) 5 3.89 vs. 4.00

Hidden Emotional Signals 5.20 (1.44) 1 4.91 vs. 5.25

Disgust/Avoidance 3.40 (1.59) 6 3.25 vs. 3.43

Behaviour Unpredictable Behaviour 4.96 (1.57) 3 4.55 vs. 5.03

Learning and /or Experience Modelling 2.78 (1.62) 7 2.91 vs. 2.76

Negative Media Portrayals 5.03 (1.45) 2 4.93 vs. 5.04

Frightening Experience 2.65 (2.03) 8 2.73 vs. 2.63

p value by the number of correlations (9), only the association between
age and Hidden Emotional Signals was statistically significant (r = 0.152,
N  = 521, p  = 0.009). This indicates that as the age of participants
increased, the mean score across this subscale also increased.
3.3. Factor analysis
A principal component analysis of the OFCQ using varimax
rotation revealed a four-factor solution explaining 64.97% of the total
variance. Eigenvalues of 14.50, 2.38, 2.06, and 1.20 were obtained for the
four factors, accounting for 46.78, 7.67, 6.65, and 3.88% of the variance,
respectively. The factor loading is shown in Table 2. Items are grouped
by the original causative theme categories.
Factors 2 and 3 readily lend themselves to conceptual categories and
correspond fairly well to our putative causal themes: Factor 2 items
clearly relate to “unpredictability of behaviour and uncertainty about
harmful intent” (unpredictable behaviour and hidden emotional
signals). Factor 3 items related solely to “negative media portrayals.” Of
the items loading most heavily onto Factor 4, two items relate to direct
instruction or modelling from family, a third relates to influence from
reading books, so this factor could be identified as “familial or cultural
transmission.” However, the fourth item that loaded most heavily onto
this factor; ‘Clowns remind me of disease and illness,’ complicates the
picture somewhat. As the majority of the items loaded onto Factor 1, it
is somewhat more difficult to conceptually characterise this factor, since
the items originated from different putative causal themes based on our
review of the literature. However, the majority of these items relate to
physiological reactivity (e.g., I feel my heart racing when I see a clown),
disgust (e.g., clowns make me feel sick to my stomach), direct sense of
threat (e.g., I worry that a clown might harm me) and the uncanny valley
effect (e.g., I think clowns look disturbing). We could say therefore that
this factor may represent “visceral reactions to the grotesque or unusual.”
4. Discussion
This study set out to investigate the origins of coulrophobia, and for
this purpose, we  constructed the Origins of Fear of Clowns
Questionnaire (OFCQ) to measure the extent to which a range of
hypothetical causal candidates contribute to clown fear. Results from
this instrument found broad support for all theorised aetiological factors
to varying degrees. Hidden Emotional Signals, Negative Media Portrayals,
Unpredictable Behaviour and the Uncanny Valley Effect attracted the
highest ratings of agreement in respective rank order. These were
followed by Direct Sense of Threat, Disgust/Avoidance and Modelling.
Perhaps surprisingly, the lowest level of agreement was for questions
relating to having had a Frightening Experience in the presence of a
clown; indicating that simple, direct conditioning alone is an insufficient
explanation of clown fear in the majority of individuals. However, what
is unclear at this stage is the level of fear associated with each origin
category and this is the focus of continued research.
No statistically significant sex differences were observed for any of
the origin categories, suggesting that common aetiological factors
account for coulrophobia in both males and females, and this is
illustrated in Figure 1. Again this finding is somewhat surprising given
that sex differences in fear are widely reported (e.g., Cornelius and
Averill, 1983; Ramikie and Ressler, 2018; Day and Stevenson, 2020).
Relatedly, females typically show greater disgust responses than males
(Al-Shawaf et al., 2018), so a more prominent difference on the Disgust/
Avoidance subscale in particular was anticipated. The sex imbalance
(85% F, 15% M) in our sample could account for this lack of difference
to an extent. There were no statistically significant correlations between
age and causative themes except for Hidden Emotional Signals, indicating
that as age increases, so does uncertainty about a clown’s harmful intent.
This could indicate a greater vigilance for potential threat or greater
difficulty in emotional processing with advancing age.
Our factor analysis of the OFCQ supported a multifactorial
explanation, and confirmed the importance of media influences (i.e. a
learned/instructed mechanism) and the unpredictability/uncertainty
about harmful intent (i.e. a cognitive mechanism) as important
aetiological contributors. Such explanations suggest a rational basis for
the fear of clowns; if for instance one has reason to suspect harm in the
presence of a specific stimulus (having observed or been instructed
about erratic or overtly threatening behaviour) then an aversion to that
stimulus is rational. Rachman (1977) suggested that fears are acquired
through one or a combination of pathways: (1) direct conditioning, (2)
vicarious learning, and (3) negative information/instruction. Our
findings provide some support for all three pathways in the development
of clown fear; less so for the direct pathway, but more so for information-
induced fear, e.g., through the media and popular culture. Fright-
induced media content can have sustaining effects into adulthood
consequently from exposure as a child or teenager (Custers and Van den
Bulck, 2011) and many retrospective studies examining undergraduates’
memories of emotional reactions to media support this view (Harrison
and Cantor, 1999; Hoekstra et al., 1999; Cantor, 2004).
However, other stimuli evoke fear reactions without prior training
(unconditioned fear stimuli), and indeed, most items from the OFCQ

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Tyson et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466

TABLE 2  Factor loadings and item-total correlations of the OFCQ. The bold factor loading coefficients indicate strong affiliation to each of the causative
theme categories.

Item Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 TOTAL IC

Uncanny valley effect
I think clowns look disturbing 0.620 0.355 0.359 0.705

Clowns look odd and often seem very out of place 0.552 0.428 0.383 0.709

Clowns make me feel uneasy 0.781 0.365 0.824

I think clowns seem more like demons or aliens than humans 0.585 0.321 0.673

Direct sense of threat

I cannot remember a time when I was not afraid of clowns 0.669 0.576

If I saw a clown, I would be on edge 0.818 0.321 0.854

I worry that a clown might harm me 0.685 0.361 0.789

Clowns seem like a potential threat 0.691 0.421 0.820

If I saw a clown, I could not help focusing my attention on it 0.544 0.401 0.683

Hidden emotional signals

I cannot tell what a clown is thinking 0.739 0.534

I find it difficult to read a clown’s facial expression 0.739 0.584

When someone is dressed as a clown, I cannot tell who is underneath 0.712 0.527

Disgust/avoidance
I would not want a clown to be in close proximity to me 0.740 0.368 0.812

Clowns make me feel sick to my stomach 0.834 0.729

I cannot stand the sight of clowns 0.857 0.811

Clowns remind me of disease and illness 0.347 0.680 0.401

Unpredictable behaviour
If I saw a clown, I could not tell how the clown will behave 0.438 0.663 0.692

I worry a clown will do something unexpected 0.619 0.506 0.755

I cannot tell if a clown is friendly or if they will make fun of me 0.455 0.634 0.675

I think clowns are creepy 0.573 0.416 0.381 0.705

Modelling
A parent or family member has told me to be wary of clowns 0.786 0.302

I have a significant family member or close friend who is afraid of clowns 0.357 0.508 0.156

Negative media portrayals

I have read stories in the news about people dressed as clowns harming others 0.743 0.406

I have seen videos within the media about killer clowns 0.766 0.392

I have read books involving killer clowns 0.438 0.502 0.198

I have seen scary scenes in films involving clowns 0.632 0.276

Frightening experience

I have had a negative experience with a clown 0.516 0.464 0.472

I was not afraid of clowns when I was younger* −0.128

Physiological reactivity
If I saw a clown, this would make my muscles tense up 0.867 0.844

Clowns make me break out in a sweat 0.869 0.787

I feel my heart racing when I see a clown 0.883 0.828

Clowns make my skin crawl 0.825 0.803

*This item shown here for completeness, but was omitted prior to PCA.

loaded onto a factor which represented a more emotional and autonomic of unease or revulsion. This suggests that there is also a more instinctive
reaction to clowns, encompassing the items relating to heightened “gut” response involved in clown fear, akin to that experienced in the
physiological reactivity, a more ambiguous sense of threat and feelings presence of fear-relevant stimuli such as snakes or spiders.

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Tyson et al.
FIGURE 1
Mean origin subscale scores between males and females who self-reported somewhat/slightly afraid of clowns or above. None of the gender comparisons
were statistically significant, but the consistency of responses to each causative theme is clearly illustrated.
Non-associative theoretical accounts argue that direct or indirect
conditioning events are not required for the onset of fear responses to
stimuli that have some type of evolutionary or biological significance
(Menzies and Clarke, 1995). Thus, the aversive pairing of an
unconditioned stimulus to an unconditioned response is no longer the
sine qua non for fear acquisition (Mackintosh, 1983).
The question that then follows is, why should a clown elicit such
instinctual reactions? What are the stimulus properties of clowns that
engender such a response? A clown is a compound stimulus consisting
of many different individual elements. It may not be  any of these
individual elements that is in itself frightening, but rather the
juxtaposition of these features. That said, some of the clowns that
anecdotally are often described as scary (including the aforementioned
Pennywise, who is meant to be so, but also including Ronald McDonald,
who is not) do share some common physical attributes—a full face of
white makeup with red accents, with no flesh tones visible underneath,
and red hair. Indeed as mentioned earlier, the literature has already
proffered a number of prominent theories of clown fear consistent with
such observations. Firstly, the uncanny valley effect—because clowns are
not-quite-human in appearance, and this effect may be amplified by
makeup that completely covers the skin or exaggerates certain facial
features—and secondly, the particular combination of pallor and redness
in a clown’s makeup is reminiscent of disease and contagion. These
factors can combine to give a clown an appearance of deformity, to
which (sadly, but nevertheless unavoidably) humans have a natural
reaction of revulsion and fear. Prior research has found that faces with
mismatched or disproportionate facial features (e.g., bulbous nose,
protruding forehead) can produce unease/unpleasant feelings in
participants (Seyama and Nagayama, 2007) and MacDorman et  al.
(2009) suggest such feelings are deeply rooted in the basic emotion of
disgust because of the human mechanism of pathogen avoidance. Our
results now provide some corroboratory evidence to support these prior
hypotheses in the literature. Future research could provide a stronger
test of these hypotheses by, for instance, presenting participants with a
series of images of clowns, varying the colour and configuration of their
Frontiers in Psychology
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466
face makeup and hair colour, and whether the makeup fully or partially
covers the face and then measuring subsequent reactions to these
stimuli. Finally, one important area that was not considered within the
current study is the link between adverse childhood experiences and
coulrophobia. There is evidence to suggest that early trauma is linked to
anxiety disorders in adulthood, including social phobia (e.g., Bruijnen
et  al., 2019), and some negative clown characteristics, such as
unpredictability or sense of threat, may be features of an early abusive
relationship. Therefore in individuals who have suffered trauma and
adversity, a clown may trigger their fears from childhood. This should
be another focus for future research.
This study is not without limitations. Further investigation using
equal numbers of males and females is warranted. Indeed, only 15% of
our sample were males and an important consideration for any study in
this area is the evidence of sex differences in the fear response (Lebron-
Milad et  al., 2012). Therefore studies should be  cautious in drawing
general conclusions from a mixed sample, especially one with such a
gender imbalance. Nevertheless, there was a remarkable degree of
consistency between male and female participants in the mean origin
scores for each causative theme as can be seen in Figure 1. A second
limitation relates to the severity of clown fear and how this might
be related to aetiological factors. Indeed, we do not know if any of our
participants would meet the diagnostic criteria for a specific phobia
according to the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and
therefore we are unable to determine the extent to which a clinically
recognised fear is associated with specific aetiological factors. Relatedly,
it would have been also useful to consider associations between fear of
clowns and other fears/phobias, and indeed other mental health problems
such as anxiety and depression. Future research should consider
comorbidity and common aetiological factors associated with all
co-occurring mental health conditions. Another focus for further study
should be in obtaining autobiographical narrative accounts of the origins
of clown fear through interviews. This methodology would enable the
collection of rich, qualitative data and provide further important insight
into this intriguing, and little understood, phenomena.
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Tyson et al.
In conclusion, this study is the first to investigate the aetiology of
clown fear and to consider competing explanations of the origins of
this phenomena. We constructed an original questionnaire for this
purpose, and our findings suggest that media influences,
unpredictability of behaviour and uncertainty about harmful intent
play an important role in the origins of coulrophobia. There are also
multiple features of clown appearance which produce a negative
experiential state and a sense of a direct threat. Certainly our findings
offer an explanation as to why clowns feature as figures of fear within
popular culture.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made
available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and
approved by the University of South Wales, Faculty of Life Sciences and
Education Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their
written informed consent to participate in this study.
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Author contributions
PT, SD, and WG: writing – original draft and writing – review and
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review and editing. All authors approved the final version of
the article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence
of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as
a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors
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